RWBY: Northward
by Leivve
Summary: It's time for the finals, and RWBY has decided to take the most dangerous available. But will they bite off more then they can chew or will they be able to fight their way through.
1. Chapter 1

**Still don't own RWBY as much as I'd like too.**

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><p>RWBY: War in the North<p>

The mass of the student body had collected in the main hall waiting for Ozpin to address them. Everyone was getting ready for their finals. Team RWBY had passed the paper test with strong scores across the board. Now they and every other student were going to be sent on full fledged missions with a hunter shadowing them to grade their performance. Naturally the first years wouldn't be doing anything to overly dangerous.

Ozpin took the stage and spoke to the crowd before him. Noting their progress both as fighters and as huntsmen and huntresses. He gave a word of warning of the danger they would be facing in the coming days of their mission. When he finished he stepped away and the screens rose so the teams could pick their missions.

"So what should we do? Something simple or exciting?" The team's leader asked.

"Do you even need to ask? This is our final, let's make it the best we can get; explosions, action and all."

RWBY walked up to the screen labeled 'Search and Destroy. One was to clear out a forest so Vale could build a outpost near the trade route that goes by. Another was to cleanse the area around a mountain top that pilgrims traveled to. One to the desert far south, another to a tropical forest even farther south. The second to last one stood out not only for being near the northern arctic ring but there was also a small skull next to it.

"Staying near the city sounds nice, but the danger mark on that one has me intrigued."

"Sorry Yang, but the skull means first years can't take it."

"Unless I approve."

The turned to see their grey-haired professor standing behind them.

"If you want that mission go ahead. The teams that showed exceptional skill in combat have been pre-approved to take the more dangerous missions. And I'm glad to say you all made the cut."

"To the north then!"

Ozpin took a sip from his coffee before going on. "Now your missions before you were shadowing a hunter, this time he will be shadowing you. He will not be helping you unless the situation demands it."

The group collected the mission files, collected their equipment, filled their bags and headed for the skydock. Leaning next to their ship the "White Kaiser" was the hunter they would be escorting.

"You the brats I've been assigned too?"

"Depends are you the one heading north?" Yang replied, returning the attitude in full.

He groaned, rolling his head as he climbed through the door next to him.

"Alright, you have your mission briefing? Supplies, enough arms, and anything else you'll need, because we will NOT be coming back to pick it up. If that means you go hungry all you'll get from me is a laugh."

"Yes sir."

He popped his head out before they could get in.

"You all went to the bathroom right?"

"Yes."

"Also Ruby right? You're that girl Oobleck went with at the start of the semester right? you didn't bring your dog this time did you? Because I can assure you this is not the kind of mission you want animal companions on."

"No, he's back home."

"Alright load on, let's get this train wreak going."

The girls shared a glance then piled in. The hunter sat in the center seat across from the door to the cockpit.

He was clad in a dark violet cloth robe-shirt and pants, and covered in very ornamental armor. Plate boots were adorned with ram horns along the top rim at the knees. Elbow plates rested over a plated glove. The fingers ending in sharp points, and skulls with enlengthened canines decorated the forearms. Small red dust crystals held firm in the back of the eye sockets.

His Breast plate protruded out from his chest so any blow would merely deflect off it, also adorned by a ram's head in the center. Only the right side had a shoulder plate, the left had large beautiful white feathers standing from where the metal and cloth met.

His face was covered in a mask made of the same metal as the armor. It held a skull like shape with the teeth being long and narrow, coming to a point making even the maw of a grim look pleasant. The rest of his head was covered in a hood, but a few locks of black hair could be seen in the back just in sight.

The girls took a seat across from the man with them. The ship took flight and Beacon disappeared over the horizon within the hour. The four sat in awkward silence as the hunter didn't even bother giving them a glance, preferring to look out at the world they were passing over. Finally after almost fifty minutes Yang broke down and addressed the man.

"So are you going to give us any details on the mission or even a introduction on who you are? If we are going on a mission together don't you think we should at least know a little of each other?"

"Reading, how does it work?"

Yang was about to snap back, but realized he was referring to the folder Ruby had, that held the mission details. She awoke the daydreaming girl back into reality and pointed out the folder for her to read.

"Oh, um... Mission number 26.

Mission Briefing: Eliminate all grim activity in the Icefounder area.

The Kingdom of Vale wishes to preform a archaeological dig at the dead kingdom of Icefounder and wishes all hostile grim in the area to be eliminated. additionally the kingdom wishes for the mission recipients to establish a defendable base of operations within a modest distance of coordinates 0013-B and 0121-J if able.

Though the dig will last for several weeks, Hunters are only needed for the establishment of a forward camp, and assist in the establishing a temporary fortress once Vale military forces arrive. Afterward, all operation control will be transferred to General Garvarius Vargus Adulfus.

Mission Notes:

Hunter, Morvan van Disseral will be shadowing the mission acceptors.

Warm, arctic friendly clothing HIGHLY recommended.

Estimated emergency extraction time: Under 24 hours."

"Eh... What's Icefounder?" asked the white hair heiress.

"That kiddies, is the dead north kingdom. Also known as the 'Frost Tomb'. It is the oldest human kingdom built and lasted for almost 250 years before it was overrun. First to rise, first to fall. While grim are more then capable of living up here, they naturally tend to avoid it due to the cold. And I don't blame them, once you pass the C coordinates it starts to get very cold very fast. So while Vale and the other kingdoms were built and survive thanks to their natural barriers, Icefounder's first line of defense was it being hidden just beyond the sight of the grim.

The stories say, one cold winter a oracle warned that if anyone left the kingdom before the first flower bloomed the grim would find and destroy them. But one family didn't have enough food to survive the winter, and the whole kingdom was starting to starve itself and couldn't provide any to the starving man or his kin. So he snuck out of the city at night and found the best fishing spot in the whole north. He caught more fish then his family would need for the winter, and supposedly eventually enough fish to help feed the entire city itself. Note that back then, a city was a oversize village by our standards. But the smell of all the caught fish found the nose of a ursa that had been sleeping in a nearby snowbank. Needless to say you can guess what happened after. Grim have a strange way of sharing information over long distances."

The four girls were silent for a while as they took in the story. They passed over the open sea, a Nevermore flew by in the distance but didn't pay them much mind. The red eyes of a kraken in the sea followed them for a while before falling behind when they passed over a island.

Ruby, Yang and Morvan started playing a few card games while Blake read and Weiss took a 'beauty' nap in her seat.

The airship didn't bother landing when they arrived just south of the destination. Morvan grabbed a square bag with the bedroll on the bottom. He carried a long metal rod like object at his waist and bags of what looked like large ammo magazines from his belt and filled the outer pockets of his bag. Though Ruby noted the magazines were rather long to be bullets, even a .50 caliber wouldn't be that long.

They hit the ground in a defensive circle with Morvan in the center. Everyone but the mentioned in a combat stance ready for battle. Morvan just stood there rubbing his fingers together trying to invisible gunk off them. A few moments passed and when nothing hostile showed itself everyone dropped their guard. Ruby pulled out a map from the file of the landing zone and where they needed to go.

"Ok we are 5 miles directly south of where we need to go."

"So what way is north then?"

Ruby produced a compass and lined up so the red arrow was pointing forward. "That way."

"Are you sure it's not the white arrow?" Weiss pointed out.

The four started debating with each other on what way they needed to go. Blake pointed out the arrow was white to blend in with the background so it was meant to be ignored. While Yang noted that red normally means bad and that it might mean your not to go that way. Morvan just shook his head from the sidelines giving a sigh. _'Well I'm fucked, death by following a bunch of first years around in a circle till we starved. Rolanda and Jorvik will never forgive me.'_

Yang called out to him asking the right way. He responded by point out to the west with one hand and south east with the other. While looking up told them "That way". Yang glared at him muttering something under her breath. Blake pointed out his job was not to help, and he's just here to watch. "Thank you!" he replied throwing out his hand to gesture to her.

Weiss noticed a mountain far to the south west on the map, the tip just over the horizon of the icy plane they were on. The red arrow now identified as the right one lead the way toward the dead city.

They had been marching for about a hour and a half growing more tired with every step. The further north they went the higher the snowbanks became. Hills started filling the once clear horizon on all sides. Yang asked Ruby how much further, but got a "I don't know" in return, but she reassured her sister they were going the right way.

"Alright ladies we are almost there." called out Morvan from atop a snowbank the others were climbing.

"How do you kno-, oh."

Yang and others came to the top of the bank to gaze upon a massive cliff of ice out in the distance. The four stood for a minute gazing at the awesome sight before them. Finally Morvan cleared his throat catching their attention as he walked down the bank side.

"Is that the Ice crown? It's bigger then I imagined." came Blake.

"No the Ice Crown is still about 200 miles north of here still. That is the wall of Icefounder."

"I noticed you seem to know a lot of Icefounder." the black hair girl retorted.

"You learn about the 'Dead Kingdoms' in your third year. Unless the curriculum changed since I graduated.

Any ways, the wall averages at 30 feet high reaching 50 at some points and down to 20 at others. The wall is actually a very solid 10 feet of stone all around, but after the first winter it froze over so the builders started using wood to act as a stand for the ice to grow around letting the cold grow the wall on it's own. This is the higher side, the breach is a half mile west of where we need to be. It was also the second and last line of defence for the city, and It held for 34 years after the grim found it before finally falling. But by then most of the citizens had fled the city and were fleeing south by boat. Many of them would go on to help found the three successor kingdoms. The military stayed behind to fight in hopes that if they pushed back the grimm, they would send word to the survivors and call them back to the city. Naturally that didn't happen."

They neared the wall as Morvan dumped the truck load of information from his class on them. From the towns general layout to important buildings, all of which were marked on the map already.

"So you want to climb or go to this breach that Morvan was talking about?"

"The breach sounds less troublesome then climbing"

They started heading for where the breach supposedly was. Only about ten minutes of walking took them to a massive hole in the towering wall. Where once it stood tall and proud was now lay broken on the ground falling inside the city, crushing a few small buildings.

"Wow, what could have destroyed a wall so big and tall?"

"The power of grimm."

They walked through the gaping portal to see the city on the other side. Each building was made of stone only about a story or two tall with a very uniform appearance to each building. They actually looked very modern in architecture. the windows were bare never holding glass in them, and only the occasional stray piece of torn fabric seemed to survive the centuries. The untouched snow and the low moan of wind flowing between the buildings gave a very creepy feel to the town. The sun had set below the wall and the shade darkened the corners and buildings giving them a very ghost town appearance. Mountain Glenn looked like a generic ruin, only it's importance to Vale giving it a disturbing feel. This place though, this place, it looked like it hadn't been touched by grim, like one day everything just died all at once. Empty houses with dead dreams.

"First order of business should be finding shelter, it will be dark soon, and I bet it gets very cold up here at night."

Ruby pulled out a new map with a more close up view of the city. The team gathered around and discussed where to set up camp. They didn't have enough time to scout out the area so just choose to take the building on a hill overlooking the bottom half of town. The lack of grimm despite the area supposedly being overrun didn't go unnoticed. The group expected to be attacked at every corner only to find more empty snow covered streets. Not even footsteps to indicate that anything other then them had been in the city since it's destruction.

The building they selected to hold up in was one of the few to stand three stories tall. it's flat top with battlements and arrow slits covering it indicated it was a guard tower of sorts overlooking the center of the city. The old wooden door had been smashed open ages ago. The snow had infiltrated the building through it's many portals.

Smashed tables and chairs were converted into firewood for the hunters as the sunset for the day. Morvan had gone ahead to sleep while the girls decided turns for night watch. When the moon peaked over the side of the far side of the wall. Howls of beowolves lit up the night. Blake who was on watch became very alert, the few calls soon became many; the number becoming frightening numerous. The howls lasted for a solid five minutes, and Blake could see a few of the black figures starting to emerge from the buildings.

The howling came to a abrupt end when it was drowned out by loud aggressive roar. The others were woken from their daze, while Morvan sprung up from his sleep the metal bar at his waist immediately snapping open into a crossbow with two cylinders filled with bolts with dust chambers on the primer ends hovering over the stock ready to be loaded in. He swept it around rapidly looking for the threat that awoke him.

"Is something wrong?"

"No... no, just go back to sleep it's just a loud grimm."

He put away his crossbow and went back to sleep, leaving the girls a little more shifty then they were before he tried comforting them. Blake continued her watch, but behind her she could tell Morvan was still awake. His voice was very soft and she couldn't understand what he was saying, even with her enhanced hearing. She could tell one thing though, it wasn't simply garble in his sleep like Weiss and Ruby had a habit of doing. It was actual constructed speech.

"This is going to be a long night." She thought as a loud howl recaught her attention.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. Checkout my other story while you wait for part 2. <strong> s/10747964/1/RWBY-Reaver


	2. Chapter 2

**Still only own Morvan.**

**Also I'm a bit of a spelling Nazi and I've gone over this thing twice before posting, but if I did miss something let me know.**

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><p>North war II<p>

It had been a long night, it took a extra hour for everyone to fall asleep after their watch ended due to all the noise. Weiss had to put down a beowolf that got a little to close, fortunately she didn't attract the others.

In the morning, everyone wanted to sleep a little longer. Morvan though, who had slept soundly the whole night, wouldn't have it.

Outside there were tracks everywhere in the once undisturbed snow. What once seemed like a abandoned ruin now looked like the victim of a recent attack.

"Where did all these grimm come from?" asked Blake.

"Probably hibernating. Grimm don't need to eat a lot, if at all, so they have no problem waiting for more prey to come along if they are secluded from human activity. Our arrival must have awoken them."

"So why wasn't the tower filled with them?"

"Taller buildings catch the cold easier maybe? Can't tell you, I'm paid to kill grimm not study them. Which is what you should be focusing on. Where burning daylight here."

The girls nodded and left their nightly shelter, armed and ready for action. except for Morvan, he kept his gunbow on him, but kept it and all his armaments packed away. He casually hung back behind the group as they entered the war zone with no intention to help them.

Ruby kicked open a door to the first house they came across. A beowolf was sleeping in the corner, but was now fully aware of them. Ruby sidestepped away from the door as Weiss lunged in impaling the creature before it could make to much noise. The creature was huge, something Mr. Port would have proudly spent a entire class talking about. Compared to the grimm down south, this was bigger then even the pack alphas. Caution was raised was the team broke into twos. Ruby and Weiss took one side of the street while Blake and Yang took the other. Ruby and Yang would make a opening and Weiss or Blake would quietly take out the grimm inside. If there was more then one their partner would come in and keep it form sounding the alarm till it could be taken out quietly.

Morvan hung in the shadows and stalked the two teams watching intently, if they get caught it's on their head, not his.

Staying undetected became harder as they neared the city center and the sun rose higher. A few grimm started waking up and wandering the streets randomly. It finally came to a end when a small nevermore flew overhead squawking at the humans below it. Growls and barks erupted from the buildings around them. The girls regrouped around Ruby who was taking to the roof. The sounds of gunfire as the girls propelled themselves up finally awoke the grimm, and they made sure the team know they were detected. A few more nevermores attacked the girls pecking at their faces. Though a mild annoyance at most, the attack bore fruit in the form of a distraction. While RWBY cleared out the flying vermin the beowolves were climbing the buildings and a few were already on the roofs of some, neutralizing their height advantage. One of the large beowolves pounced from a building across the street, only to be intercepted by a solid punch from Yang. The girls all started lighting up the grimm as they attacked or came over the edge of the building.

They didn't just shake the hornet's nest, they took a stick and utterly destroyed it. The once white snow covered walls and streets of the city were now black from the grim crawling all over to get to the four girls. The bigger ones were even crushing the smaller in their ravenous attempt to make them bleed.

"There are so many, we should find a better location before they get in a position to overrun us."

"That's a nice idea Blake, but where!?"

Ruby caught sight of Morvan, he was standing on a guard tower looking down at them, observing from a distance. Seeing him brought a idea on Ruby's train of thought. She told the others to cover her as she pulled out her map.

"What's the plan?"

"Remember class with Professor Oobleck? He told us that Vale and the other kingdoms were founded around a defensive stronghold that the civilians could retreat to while the army pushed the grimm back past the boarder?"

"No I think I slept through that class."

"Well maybe this old kingdom has as inner castle or something similar."

Her gaze scoured the paper looking at the small blocks used to represent buildings. There was one a toward the northern end that was considerably larger then the others. The shape though didn't convince her it was a keep, but it was all they had at the moment. The stampede of grimm was starting to close in on them so it was now or never.

Crimson Rose fired a shot propelling Ruby through the air as she moved to the next roof. She easily cut down the two Beowolves that were already on top and continued on to the next while the others followed up. They cleaved through the black mob as they moved down the street toward the town center. The street went up a hill and when Ruby peeked over it during a jump she could see the massive structure before her. It had to be at least 4 stories tall. It was easily the largest building in the city, and best of all it was 3 tiers stacked on top of each other with the top being the smallest, only the size of a small house. Battlements ringed each tier and Ruby was convinced that the massive building was the ruler's castle, if you you considered a castle based on shape, not actual things like a gate house or even towers.

The awesome sized double doors were frozen shut and the team didn't have time to force it open for the massive hoard was right on their heels. they climbed to the top of the first tier and stood atop the battlements. The building must have been covered with grimm as there were more tracks then snow atop the building, but the grimm must have climbed down when the fighting started.

Bullets rained down from the wall onto the incoming grimm as they tried to retake their castle. The wall was lined with ice like the door that gave away easily to the grimm's raw strength as they struggled to climb up. The shooting gallery started to come to a end as the hoard started to thin. Slowly though they were making their way up the wall. Yang called out she was running low on bullets and Blake commented she had a bit left, but was also starting to near the danger point.

Blake and Ruby fled to the next tier while Yang and Weiss stayed below to engage in close quarters. Yang made a swing and a miss as the first grim over was shot down by Ruby who had folded up her scythe to help her aim down at them. In her scope she caught sight of Morvan in a building behind what remained of the hoard, a few dead grimm around him but otherwise hidden. The backbone of the hoard was finally broken when the largest beowolf any of them had seen took a solid punch to the face from Yang and fell to the ground landing with a loud crash on the frozen stone below. The twenty or so left, after seeing their alpha fall turned tail and ran. only seven managed to get away as they were picked off from the fortress.

"Well that was fun, I haven't had this much excitement and adrenaline flowing through me since... well that nevermore and deathstalker were about half way to where I'm at now."

"We did it!"

"I'm sure Professor Port will hear about this and boast about us being his students to future classes."

"Great job team RWBY! mission accomplished, I'm sure the general can handle what's left."

"Sorry to pop your bubble Ruby, but it's not over till you scout the entire area. Though if that really is it, yea I'll let you pass if you let only a few go. If the army wasn't coming though I would expect you to kill every last one."

Morvan had climbed the wall with his clawed gloves and had rejoined them. He gave a few congratulation to the others.

"You mean we passed!"

He placed his hand on the redhead's head giving her a light pat.

"As of this moment yes, but you can still screw it up so stay on your toes. I was highly impressed not only with your combat skills and your tactical decision. Most first years would have stayed on that first roof and just tried to fight their way out. You saw you had lost your initial advantage and abandoned the position before you got over run and in turn found a even better one. And turned what would have been a long grinding battle into a easy shooting gallery. So I'll give you all a B."

"What a B! You just said you were impressed."

"If you had come up with the fall back plan before hand it would be an A, but you didn't. You should always strive for victory, but you should have a plan in place incase something... unexpected happens."

Ruby's smile turned into a light scowl as she looked up at the hunter, her eyes reading "Really?".

The team split up to cover more ground. The castle was sitting in front of a large open area that Morvan called a forum. It broke off into three streets that went directly south, east and west. which broke off into smaller streets. The whole city was built on the side of a hill with the tallest parts of the wall toward the south. The hill flattened out a little at the top around the stronghold, but still went up a little more. There was a small cliff at the very top with the wall going along the edge. Though the wall was shorter there and used the cliff to make it 'taller' to climb up. Despite not being as tall it still stood higher then even the highest points on the south side. The city itself was well organized with the main street and the center area having larger buildings she guessed were shops and businesses while the back roads looked more like housing. Guard towers were at regular intervals along the main roads and had a outward ring for the different housing districts. It all looked very neat like a grid and well thought out before committed to. Morvan pointed out to her that each of the guard towers had different color rings around the upper battlements and decor depending where they were in position to the castle.

Yang went west while Weiss took south and Blake east. Morvan stayed with Ruby to check the keep. They planed to spend the next three hours checking the area for grimm then regroup in the center.

"I can see why this place lasted so long, I'll have to share this with Oobleck when I see him again. This entire city looks like it was built with the intent of efficiency and defence."

"You know Professor Oobleck outside him being a teacher?"

"Oh yes, history was always my favorite subject, and we consistently talk about things I find while I'm on missions. He's actually writing the text book for next year, I'm sure he'd love any extra information he can get to make it more flushed out. Hopefully it will be more interesting then the current one so students aren't consistently sleeping in class."

He turned to face her with a intense glare. Ruby smiled and gave a light laugh as she realized he was talking about her.

The two decided to check the small building behind them. The top tier of the castle was so small it must have been a personal chamber for the king or something. Ruby struggled to kicked down the door, due to it being locked from the inside as well as frozen. Inside was a lack of grim inside. What was inside was a actually well preserved room. The room was filled with red tapestries, gilded with gold. even the rug was red and had silver trim. The carpet lead up to what looked like a stone alter. Atop it was a bronze plate with the impression of a man sticking out of it. He was wearing chain mail and a blank tabard with a sword in his arms and a crown on his head. His face wasn't very well formed, passably due to it burning as the liquid bronze was poured on him. He was surrounded by gold objects from cups and plates to rings and necklaces. It was a well put together 'burial' tomb. Only thing standing out were two human corpses that had frozen over before they finished rotting. one was laying on the ground the other was in a wooden chair arms hanging. Both were clad in armor and were armed.

Morvan inspected a small cup lying below the hand of one of the guards. He gave it a full look over and even a sniff checking for a scent. He called out they must have poisoned themselves after burying the king. He placed the cup exactly where he found it before continuing to look around.

Ruby walked over to a pendent that caught her eye. It was all gold chain included with beautiful craftsmanship put into the decorative details around a perfectly cut ruby in the center. Morvan cleared his throat causing her to jump the jewelry still in hand.

"Oh I was just looking. I'll put it right back, it belongs in a museum righ-"

She saw Morvan was holding a gold ring in his hand with a perfectly cut amethyst embedded in it. His finger was over his mask's fanged mouth gesturing "Shh" as he pocketed the ring. Ruby smiled and did the same with her pendent. she turned to grab something for the others, but Morvan stopped her.

"Oy! No looting, save some for the archaeologist. What about the others? shouldn't we get something for them too?"

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked her out with him. He closed the door behind them before grabbing her again and continuing.

"What do you mean? We didn't find anything. Right!?"

The rose got the message and they continued their search down to the second tier. the door gave away much easier and the two walked into what must have been the kings actual living quarters. But unlike the untouched tomb the nice fabrics and furniture were smashed and shredded. Still no grimm so they continued through finding a small staircase that went down to the ground floor. They came out behind the smashed head table of a massive feasting hall. Splintered wood covered the ground along the hall from where other tables must have stood. The whole area was large and the architecture helped make it look even bigger. Ruby looked up in awe to fully take in the room, hanging from metal bars was the recreated form a monstrous whale like grim, probably a trophy of some sort.

She took a step into the hall muttering "Wow!" at the sight, but was stopped as a metal clad hand came over her mouth and pulled her back. she was slammed on the wall, but it didn't seem he meant it to be as strong as it was. The owner was looking out into the hall not at her. His finger came over his face once more gesturing for silence. He didn't release her face as he walked back up the stairs, Ruby tried to look see what the man was looking at, but to no avail. when they reached the second tier he threw her forward a little and telling her to run. She didn't question and ran for the outside.

"Ok what's going on? What's got you to tense did you see a beowolf a pack? I could have handled it, actually I thought you weren't to involve yourself unless the situation called for it..."

Her last comment answered the question for her and she suddenly got very fearful of what the hunter had seen while she was awestruck. Morvan wasn't listening to her he was talking on his scroll to someone.

"Where's that support I called for!?"

...

"What do you mean you need one of the team members needs to send a distress call, I did..."

He grabbed her shoulder and twisted her around till he found the pouch he saw her put her scroll in while on the flight out. He pressed a few buttons till the screen went red then handed it back to her.

"There! Now get your asses over here!"

...

"What do you mean a storm! Just fly around it!"

... ...

"Ok fine, it's not that simple I get it. what about General Adulfus? He was stopping in Atlas right? How long till he gets here?"

... ... ...

"Oh... well he'll got here before you any ways. Well send him the message."

...

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE FOR DIRECT CONTACT! You tell him to be at battle stations when he arrives. Code black, you hear me CODE FLIPPING BLACK!"

... ...

"My authorization to call a code black? How about that I'm on the mission to clear out Icefounder and there is a FUCKING JUGGERNAUT HERE!"

He looked to Ruby told her to recall her friends, before continuing on with his own conversation.

"No don't leave a message, don't tell his secretary's secretary. Don't tell his secretary, don't even tell his second in command, YOU TELL HIM! Directly."

...

"Screw clearance! I've met the guy a few times before, nice guy, likes his coffee thick and black. Any ways, I can assure you he'll probably promote you on the spot for telling him this directly! So just do it."

...

"Good, and if I find out you didn't tell him directly, I WILL FIND YOU!"

He ended the call and looked to see a confused and slightly scared Ruby.

"What's a 'juggernaut'?"

He grabbed her hand and told her "Pray you don't have to find out". He ran over the edge taking her with him. They landed on their feet with a thud. Morvan ran ahead seeing the others starting to congregate at the far end of the forum.

"What's up sis, what's wrong."

"Sorry girls, I'm taking command of this operation, we are pulling out ASAP."

The three new comers looked at each other then to Ruby who only shrugged. Morvan muttered something to himself only Blake could pick up.

"What do you mean wake it? What's going on?"

"Stop worrying! If we have to much negative emotion flowing through us we might alert it to us being here!"

This only backfired as the group on started to grow concerned. Seeing this only made Morvan more unsettled about what might happen. He kept the snowball going as he failed to try to calm the girls, until loud growl came from huge building behind them.

"What was that?"

Morvan pointed out to the distance to catch their attention.

"The thing that did that singlehandedly."

They looked to see Morvan pointing out at the breach in the towering wall across the city. Blake gulped at the thought of something, anything single handedly breaking down such a thick and tall wall of solid ice.

There was a second roar this time far more aggressive. The five turned to the door where the noise was coming from. A great force hit it from the inside, the ice on it cracking. Another strike and the ice shattered, falling to the ground. One last blow and the door burst open. A black creature rushed out half way through the forum before it finally noticed the group.

It was humanoid in shape standing about eight and a half feet tall. It's forearms and hands were a little oversized compared to a normal human's and it's shoulders were more broad. The grimm mask covered it's full head like a helmet and it had plates covering almost it's entire body many ending in a spine or hook. It also had something they had never seen before with a grimm, a weapon. Not just some branch it had found or a large stone, it was a full fledged weapon; a morning star specifically. It looked dark and metal, but also like a grimm's body.

When the creature eyed them it gave a loud battle cry before charging them.

"Run!" shouted Morvan as he got the girls to start following him.

He pulled out his crossbow and loaded it. grabbing a few pouches and other nic-nacs from his bag as the ran and clipping them to his belt, legs and wherever they were suppose to fit on his person. The group ran around a corner using the towers to navigate, hoping to lose their pursuer. Only to find it completely ineffective, as the angry grim behind them was more then willing to cut the corners via through the walls.

It slowly gained on them making a few swings with it's weapon. Though they were still out of reach they would hear the massive force it carried as it swung through the air.

Yang finally grew tired of running and turned on her heels coming to a sudden stop. Morvan turned as well and tried to stop her, but she simply ignored him and jumped at the grimm while dodging another swing of the morning star. A direct hit to the face buckshot included knocked it back a few steps and landing on it's back.

She was about to boast about it being a 'piece of cake' but stopped when the beast righted itself. Though stain black from the blast its helmet was otherwise undamaged. The others readied their weapons to fight save Morvan.

"Fine if your so insistent in going down in a blaze of glory then lets at least move this fight outside the city and in the open where we have an advantage? So the history books will at least say it was bravery not foolishness."

The four looked to each other, and though they just wanted to fight the grimm that was now getting up, yielded since he was technically the one now in charge. They moved to the top of they buildings and ran for the breach. The juggernaut followed, smashing any wall building or obstacle between it and them as they went.

A beowolf tried to join up with it, but was taken out by the back-swing as the bigger monster smashed a hole in the wall of a building the team had jumped over. The juggernaut was starting to slow as the consistent barriers its prey was between them and it was causing it to fall behind a little, though the chase was far from over.

The five finally made it out of the city. They had made a small gap between them and the monster chasing them, but the smashing of walls and buildings told them it wasn't giving up so easily.

"Alright half a minute breather, full minute at most. Game plan, Juggernauts have thick hides and their armor can take blows just short of direct hits from a tank cannon. The few natural holes in their armor are weak points, but juggernauts are smart and know you will be aiming for them, so they'll protect them accordingly. So Yang your on distraction duty, you can hit it hard enough to get it's attention, even if you can't actually hurt it. Ruby, Weiss you focus on trying to peel the armor off or at least make a hole in the torso where its hide is weakest. Note that the plates are part of it's flesh so if you see blood keep working that spot. Blake and me will handle support."

Morvan then crouched down his gunbow ready for where the grimm will show up. Yang took point in front with Blake just behind her. Ruby and Wiess took each flank hanging back slightly.

The stomping of footsteps came to a stop just before it came around the corner to the waiting hunter and huntresses in training. The sound of breaking ice could be heard and a moment later the armored hand could be seen peeking out from the side, a piece of flat ice in hand.

"Is... Is that thing scouting us with that piece of ice."

"That's nothing, the first juggernaut I fought was actually commanding a small band of grimm. Though it's only order was roaring and making them attack, they all held back till it told them to charge and what to charge at."

The ice was crushed in the armored hand, and the beast rounded the corner. It took two strides before it got hit by a explosive bolt from Morvan. No harm was done tough and it continued it's charge. Another shot hit it, but this wasn't to hurt it, when the blast cleared from the beast's sight Yang was in it's face delivering a powerful blow to the same spot as last time. The juggernaut stumbled back, but refused to fall like last time. She back flipped out of a side swing and continued the act as the grimm advanced on her with a flurry of swings. A blast of ice hit its shoulder forming up around it stopping the last swing. Ruby blasted in fitting Crimson rose underneath one of the center scale plates. She swung onto the monster's shoulder and fired a few rounds trying to lift the plate, but it was no good. Blake tossed her ribbon out to Yang who started swinging on it to gather momentum. Weiss continued her assault on the beast, freezing it's legs and parts of it's side. Though it's hulking strength in the beast let it break free with a little effort, but she continued any ways in hopes of slowing it down. A few bolts from Morvan flew true hitting small holes in the under arm and in the neck, though digging in, the hide was to thick to draw blood.

Parts of the bow started folding up and adjusting themselves for weight distribution while the arms snapped over so they were both on the same side of the weapon. The wire retightened so he was holding a one handed axe with the most likely very sharp metal wire acting as the blade.

Yang let go flying toward the beast still trying to stop the annoyance of ice from covering it. Her fist collided with Crimson Rose forcing it deeper under the plate. The juggernaut coiled from the hit and a small drip of blood formed, but was little more then a scratch. The enraged beast ignored the ice and backhanded Yang before she landed on the ground at it's feet. It did the same to Ruby knocking her back as well.

"Blake follow up."

Morvan came up behind her and she tossed him the ribbon like Yang, but he swung her instead. Not worrying about Ruby anymore the beast shattered the ice that was now covering it's entire backside by simply flexing it's shoulders and arms. It turned to face Weiss and took a few swings forcing her to back off. She expertly dodged a overhead swing, but the force broke up the snow she was standing on causing her to sink in a foot reducing her mobility.

The beast was reading another attack on Weiss when Blake collided with the back of the grimm's head and kicked off firing her pistol down on it mid air. As she fell it took a swing at her, and though it felt the attack connect it still saw Blake falling unharmed. She landed on Crimson Rose's shaft and used it to springboard away from the beast, getting a painful groan in return for the action. She landed on her feet next to Weiss with the intent of continuing her attack, but they stopped when Morvan appeared in a white flash in front of then standing on the beast shoulder hacking his axe into the hide underneath the neck drawing blood this time. The grim tried to snatch him with it's free hand, only for Morvan to disappeared in a flash of light and reappear on the forearm that was trying to grab him. The axe returned to it's crossbow form and he unleashed a rapid barrage of shots into the wound he just made. It threw him off to no harm to the hunter has he once more disappeared mid flight and landed right in front of Yang.

"How good is your leader's craftsmen ship?"

He held his hands out making a foothold with the intent of throwing Yang. It took her a moment to realize what he was taking about before accepting the throw. Ruby was running around the battle trying to get in a position to collect her weapon. She eyed her sister flying through the air with the help of her shotgun gauntlets. Blake and Weiss noticed this too and tried to stop the juggernaut's advance so she could aim better.

The yellow bruiser came down full force slamming the rose so hard it ripped the segmentata style plate clean off from the torso. Yang landed on the ground and darted off to join the others. Ruby dashed between the beast's legs while it coiled from the pain, snatching up her weapon and stopping next to her team. Morvan blinked in behind them looking at the clean wound in the armor. Ruby and him called out to Weiss simultaneously.

"Ice flower!"

"Open him up like a can!"

Ruby crouched down planting her weapon in the ground as Weiss made her glyph to alter the bullets. She scored two perfect hits on the sides of the opening leaving the center open. The ice expanded pushing the plates apart a little more.

"Can you give me a little more umph?"

Weiss looked over to address Morvan. The arms of his crossbow snapped in and the bolt cartages he had rotated to the bottom of the weapon. The barrel extended turning the weapon into a long heavy rifle. It clicked open breach action style and the wielder pulled out a large stack like object from one of his back pouches and slotted the large projectile into the weapon before flicking his wrist causing it to click back into place.

He took aim, as Weiss waved her blade over his weapon making dark yellow glyphs along the barrel of Morvan's weapon as he took aim. The juggernaut recognized what was coming and dropped its weapon and used both hands to break the ice on it's chest. The shot thundered through the air as it met it's target. Though it was a direct hit and the huge metal slug dug in deep, it got pinched between the juggernaut's reclosed plates.

"Oh fucking toss!"

"Red Sunset!"

"I got it!"

Yang slammed her fist together calling her full power forth in full acknowledgement of her leader's call. The juggernaut notice the incoming brawler and raised it's arms to protect the delicate situation in it's chest. She wasn't aiming for the slug though and landed a perfect hit to the face once more sending the beast on it's back once more.

Blake mean while had wrapped her weapon around Crimson Rose and Ruby was firing off shots to help her get more momentum as she swung the cat around. After a few rotations she fired one last round and went over head, bringing Blake straight down, right on the grimm's chest, right where the slug was caught, forcing it in.

Blood burst from the the small lines in the juggernauts helmet mask before going limp. Blake had to have Weiss help her dislodge her foot that had followed the slug in and was now caught in the beast's chest.

"Wow, I'll admit you girls got more punch then I thought you did."

"Piece of cake." Ruby shrugged.

"You sure made it look that way. Though if you tried fighting something like that one on one you'd realize why I was so cautious about it. I'll admit though I greatly underestimated you, Juggernauts are too tough and smart to be over come by a single person. Not even Ozpin could manage such a feat, and I didn't thing you girls would be skilled enough to to help me in the endeavor.

I was wrong."

"No worries, just glad to help; though if you wanted to make it up to use you could you know... change that B to an A."

He gestured to the dead juggernaut before continuing.

"A performance like that and you thought you wouldn't get one?"

"Well, when we met, and the way you acted I thought you didn't like us."

"Not such much as you, as just students in general. Every time I get a team I almost always fail them, because I wind up either having to save them, or they are so full of themselves and think they can just fight out of any situation and make poor tactical judgement. I mean, my five year old has a better tactical mind then half the first years I go with." He poked her on the forehead before continuing his congratulations on their combat skills.

After a few hours a huge airship descended on their location. Soldiers piled out arms ready, and a tank dropped from the grav-hatch a little back. A older gentlemen in plate armor descended down the ramp after the soldiers. He had a small limp and cane with a obvious sword handle mounted to the end. He walked up to Morvan, and after a hand shake and a few friendly words, explained the situation to the old general. He leaned out looking behind him at the collected girls then looked quizzically back at him.

"Alright team RWBY, this is our ride, mission accomplished."

* * *

><p>It was the second day of the new year. Team RWBY had been moved to a new dorm and after reconstructing their 'bunk beds' found themselves in the same situation as last year: Trying to find all their stuff in a panic before they were late for class.<p>

"I can't find my history text book!"

"Here, it was in your bag."

"What? Ruby never puts her books in her bag, she normally sleeps with them, or on them some nights."

"Doesn't matter it's found, let's go before we're late!"

The group scrambled in just as the bell rang. Their teacher started by chewing their ears off till they took their seats, then started giving the class instruction.

Ruby opened her book to find someone had put pencil marks on the inside cover of her new text book "pg 127".

She groaned while erasing the marks, probably of yang's design since she found the book in her bag so easily. None the less she decided to humor her sister, ignoring what the teach was saying and turned to the page.

One line was underlined in pencil and there was writing at the bottom of the page.

"Sorry I might have forgotten to mention you four - Morvan"

The red girl looked at the marked part of the page for clarification.

"In recent months the area has since been converted into a air base and emergency safe haven for the kingdom of Vale. Thanks to the heroics of Morvan van Disseral who cleared out the dead kingdom."

"... THAT SON OF A BI-"

"Miss Ruby! Is there something you would like to share with the class!?"

"YES! ... No. Wait, maybe... No, no it's fine."

"I thought so, now as I was saying-"

_"Next time I see him he's going to be in for a world of hurt!"_

* * *

><p><strong>There you have it, again if you feel like using Morvan or the general feel free to (just send a shout out).<strong>

**Also check out RWBY: Reaver while your waiting for the next one. Next story will have Tyral will be seeing a little more screen time so if you want to see what's up with him check it out. Morvan will also be making a small cameo.**

**Other then that thanks for reading.**


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